We now are all in the marketing and persuasion business.
When potential customers contact you, it’s not like they haven’t even thought about what to do. They probably know more about you than you know about them.
Marketers now must figure out how to influence potential customers where and when they are doing pre-purchase research. You have to be there in an authoritative way providing help and answers.
If you’re not there, you miss the chance to influence pre-purchase considerations and decisions.
Building relationships is more important than ever today. Relationship marketing has always been critical for business success. You just have to do it in a different way than before.
Golf outing? Going to the big game? Those traditional tactics are nice. However, today you’ve got to be part of the decision-making process when your potential customer is initially gathering information. You’ve got to practice relationship marketing from the beginning of their inquiries right through the entire customer journey.
What’s a savvy marketer today? Here are some steps that help successful organizations make relationship marketing work in today’s environment:
1. Fine-tune your search engine keywords and criteria
Develop strong, informative (not sales-y) content that answers the questions they are asking. Poll your sales people for what pain customers are going through. Develop a system to track customer pain points and then leverage that into solutions-based content that you deliver in educational, sometimes fun and even funny ways. We’re human beings! Be real and human.
2. Make sure it is available in a mobile-friendly way
Most content is now consumed on your smartphone and/or tablet. Think video, backed up with PDF reports, interactive websites, and more.
3. Integrate your digital practices
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